Galleria Palatina e Arte Moderna

More photos coming soon – but isn't the inside of the Galleria Palatina incredible with its red carpets, marble statues and gold finishes? The Royal Palace itself is like a jewellery box, every room filled with beautiful paintings and embellished with gold finishings at every turn. Definitely worth a visit on a rainy florentine day. 

Back to School

A week has already flown by, so I thought it was about time I show you where I spend most of my mornings here in Florence, the language school! As well as the famous Harold Acton Library the British Institute own another space for their famous language centre which is based on the north side of the Arno in the beautiful Piazza Strozzi, just a quick stroll across Ponte Santa Trinita and through Via de Tornabuoni and Via Porta Rossa (both streets studded with every exciting designer shop you can imagine). Handily it's got the wonderful Odeon bistro coffee shop based just below it and the famous Cinema Odeon Firenze right around the corner, so right in the thick of things while still just outside of the main tourist trails. The long corridors are lined with gorgeous art works, an assortment of comfortable chairs and a couple of very welcome vending machines. 

Every morning just before 10am I climb the many flights of stairs up to the last floor (there is a lift but I figure it's good practice to counter the vast quantities of delicious pasta I'm consuming). Here, usually in room 11, I study with my fellow Beginners till 12:45 (with a coffee break – ovviamente!). There are quite a lot of us at the institute this spring term, so we're divided into groups, for us there's Group 1 and Group 2, with everyone from a Hungarian banker, gap year and university students, post-university students, writers, musicians and nursing assistants. A wonderful mix of people from all walks of life who are all just as excited to be in Florence learning Italian. Perfetto! 

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Orto Botanico

Happy Primo Maggio! Hopefully you're spending your May day doing some exploring. Here's a few snaps from my wandering on Saturday of the Botanical Gardens, the Orto Botanico of Firenze. It's amazing to think these botanical gardens are the third oldest in the whole of Italy, coming just after Padua and Pisa. They may be relatively small (currently 2.39 hectars), but these gardens contain a lot. Founded on December 1st 1545 when the Grand Duke Cosimo dei Medici bought the land from Dominican sisters, at the time the land was an orchard known as Giardino dei Semplici because it has been used to cultivate medicinal plants, and still is to an extent today. Highlights include the huge Orangerie that confusingly contains an abundance of ferns, the many potted lemon trees, the fragrant perfume of the giant roses coiled around wire structures, the Yoga taking place in the middle of the gardens by the fountain (I thought papping people as they found their inner zen might ruin the moment hence no photos of that particular joy - mi dispiace). 

The gardens were originally designed by Niccolò called "il Tribolo" the designer behind several other grand ducal gardens produced around the same time, like the Medici villa in Castello (another place I have yet to explore). The entire area is divided into many beautiful avenues of plants, trees and smaller green houses. At first the giardino was directed by the botanist Luca Ghini a favourite of the Botanical Gardens at Pisa, but by the 18th century the generosity of Cosimo III Dei Medici saw the gardens put under the direction of the Florentine Botanical Society and the botanist Pier Antonio Micheli.

Weather wise I was very lucky, the sun shone and showed the garden in its best light, it's a very tranquil spot and well worth the walk just a little north of the historical centre. Anyway, I hope you all had a very happy May day.

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